UC-NRLF 


702 


GIFT   OF 


§ 

i 
S 


3 


Proofs 

of 

Immortality 


ITS  NATURALNESS 
AND  POSSIBILITIES 


J.  M.  PEEBLES,  M.A.,  M.D.,  PK.D.,  LLD. 


ot  Smmortalttp 


ITS  NATURALNESS,  ITS  POSSIBILITIES 


-ami. 


NOW-A-DAY  EVIDENCES 


REFUSED  A  HEARING 

By  Rev.  Canon  Girdlestone  and  other  churchmen  connected  with  the 
Victoria  Institute  and  Philosophical  Society  of  Great  Britain. 


By  J.  M.  PEEBLES,  M.  D.,  M.  A.,  PH.  D.,  LL  D. 


'The  atone  which  the  builders  refused  is  become 
the  head-stone  of  the  corner." 

— Psalm  CXVIII-22. 


FIFTH  'EfDITION 


PEEBLES   PUBLISHING  CO. 

5719  Fayette  St. 
Los  Angeles,  California,  U.  S.  A. 


Copyrighted  in  the 

Office  of  the  Registrar  at  Washington,  D.  C. 
by  J.  M.  PEEBLES,  M.  D. 
1914 


& 


Introduction 


The  eminent  John  Wesley,  and  other  noted  men  of 
the  past,  believed  in  the  immortality  of  animals. 
Their  existence  is  certainly  dual.  They  have  instinct, 
sensation,  and  they  reason  on  a  certain  plane  of  con- 
sciousness. But  whether  immortal  or  not,  they  de- 
serve our  tenderest  care. 

Surgeons,  intelligent,  up-to-date  men  in  psychology, 
are  well  aware  that  in  amputating  a  limb  they  do  not 
remove  the  invisible,  the  more  substantial,  spiritual 
limb. 

There  is  a  peculiar  worm — the  nais — which,  when 
cut  into  several  sections,  will  reproduce  itself  from 
every  section,  showing  conclusively  that  there  was  a 
vital  entity  in  each  section  capable  of  reproducing 
this  re-growth.  Amputate  the  leg  of  a  salamander, 
and  it  will  be  reproduced  to  the  minutest  details, 
joints,  veins,  nerves.  And  why?  Because  the  real 
entity — the  invisible  leg — was  not  removed.  The  ma- 
terial at  best  is  but  a  shadow.  The  vital  leg  re- 
mained, serving  as  the  attractive  force  for  the  bio- 
plasmic  cells  to  rebuild  the  exact  form  of  the  displaced 
leg,  even  to  the  muscles,  tendons,  arteries,  bones, 
each  and  all  in  their  proper  relations.  The  dog  has 
been  known  to  attempt  to  lick  the  lost  foot  of  his 
master. 

When  the  material  arm  or  finger  of  a  man  is  am- 
putated, or  torn  off  by  machinery,  the  vital,  substan- 
tial arm  remains— and  the  person  is  often  conscious 
— intensely  conscious,  of  the  presence  of  this  invisible 
arm — and  yet,  not  invisible  to  the  clairvoyant. 

Man  is  a  duality,  and  more,  he  is  a  trinity  in  unity, 
constituted  of  a  physical  body,  a  soul-body,  and  that 


308395 


divine,  entity— -the  uncompounded  conscious  spirit — 
God  incarnated  and  finited. 

If  the  animals  and  insects  of  earth  exist  in  the 
spirit  world,  which  is  plausible,  it  does  not  prove  that 
they  will  so  progress,  or  so  exist  consciously  in  the 
celestial  or  angelic  world,  destination  being  consid- 
ered the  measure  of  aspiration.  The  ideal  does  not 
belong  to  the  lower  kingdoms. 

Materialists,  and  some  materialistic  spiritists, 
have  endeavored  to  account  for  the  origin  of  man 
by  "matter  and  force/'  or  "matter  and  motion." 
Some  writers  jumble  together  motion  and  force. 
They  are  not  equivalents.  Motion  is  not  substantial ; 
it  is  only  the  act  of  a  body  in  changing  its  position 
from  a  state  of  rest,  and  necessarily  ceases  to  exist 
when  the  body  ceases  to  move.  The  persistent  state- 
ment of  "molecular  motion"  only  provokes  the  in- 
quiry, "What  caused  the  motion?"  The  substantial 
alone  can  cause  motion,  and  the  substantial  is  none 
the  less  substantial  because  of  its  inconceivable  at- 
tenuation and  ethereal  intangibility.  Steam,  though 
invisible,  is  an  acknowledged  force — a  substance — 
a  substance  that  drives  the  piston  in  the  steam  engine. 
Force,  though  unseen,  is  indestructible.  The  soul- 
body,  though  unseen  by  the  material  eye,  interper- 
meates  the  physical  body.  It  is  an  intermediate  ve- 
hicle between  spirit  and  matter,  and  the  force  which 
penetrates  and  moves  it  is  the  spirit.  And  this  spirit, 
ethereal,  intangible  and  uncompounded,  is  substan- 
tial substance — not  gross  matter,  but  divine  sub- 
stance— a  vital  spark  from  the  infinite  life — a  ger- 
minal entity,  non-composite,  non-compounded,  and 
hence  necessarily  indestructible,  for  no  thinker,  no 
scientist,  no  inspired  biblicist,  would  presume  to 
predicate  destruction  of  indestructible  substance, 
which  indestructible  substance  involves  life,  sensa- 
tion, thought,  self-consciousness  and  progress  in 
manifestation  and  so  we  scientifically  and  logically 
prove  the  immortality,  not  of  the  soul,  but  of  the 
spirit,  which  spirit  is  the  offspring  of,  and  poten- 


tially  and  parentally  related  to  the  infinite  Spirit 
of  the  universe — God,  Immanuel  with  us  and  Im- 
manuel  in  us. 

The  following  translation  of  the  speech  of  Cato 
on  the  immortality  of  the  human  spirit  can  scarcely 
be  sufficiently  admired  for  its  conciseness,  purity 
and  elegance  of  phraseology : — 
"It  must  be  so.    Plato,  thou  reasonest  well. 
Else  whence  this  pleasing  hope, — this  fond  desire, — 
This  longing  after  immortality? 
Or  whence  this  secret  dread  and  inward  horror 
Of  falling  into  naught?    Why  shrinks  the  soul 
Back  on  herself,  and  startles  at  destruction? 
'Tis  the  divinity  that  stirs  within  us: 
'Tis  heaven  itself  that  points  out  a  hereafter, 
And  intimates  eternity  to  man. 
Eternity! — thou  pleasing,  dreadful  thought! 
Through  what  variety  of  untried  being, — 
Through  what  new  scenes  and  changes  must  we 

pass! 

The  wide — the  unbounded — prospect  lies  before  me ; 
But  shadows,  clouds,  and  darkness  rest  upon  it. 
Here  will  I  hold :   If  there's  a  Power  above  us 
(And  that  there  is  all  Nature  cries  aloud, 
Through  all  her  works),  He  must  delight  in  virtue; 
And  that  which  He  delights  in  must  be  happy; 
But  when,  or  where? 
I'm  weary  of  conjectures, — this  must  end  them. 

Thus  am  I  doubly  arm'd :  my  death  and  lif e — 
My  bane  and  antidote — are  both  before  me. 
This,  in  a  moment,  brings  me  to  an  end ; 
But  this  informs  me  I  shall  never  die. 
The  soul,  secure  in  her  existence,  smiles 
At  the  drawn  dagger,  and  defies  its  point. 
The  stars  shall  fade  away,  the  sun  himself 
Grow  dim  with  age,  and  Nature  sink  in  years ; 
But  thou  shalt  flourish  in  immortal  youth, — 
Unhurt  amidst  the  war  of  elements, 
The  wreck  of  matter,  and  the  crush  of  worlds." 


EXPLANATORY 

The  following  letter,  published  in  London  Light, 
April  29th,  1906,  mentions  the  circumstances  and 
suggests  some  of  the  reasons  why  this  paper  was 
denied  a  reading  by  the  council. 

"Mark  well"  (using  the  words  of  a  Masonic  de- 
gree). While  a  guest  at  the  dining-club  of  the  secre- 
tary, Rev.  Dr.  Hull,  in  London,  some  four  years  ago, 
he  expressed  the  wish  that  I  would  "prepare  a  pa- 
per" to  read,  or  to  be  read,  before  the  Philosophical 
Society  of  Great  Britain.  I  promised  to  do  so  at 
some  future  time.  That  time  had  now  come.  It  was 
prepared  and  personally  presented  to  the  secretary, 
Rev.  Dr.  Hull,  and,  according  to  the  custom  of  this 
scientific  institute,  constituted  of  some  of  the  most 
distinguished  scientists  and  Christian  religionists  of 
England  and  of  other  countries,  my  paper  was  pub- 
lished in  pamphlet  form  by  this  Philosophical  Soci- 
ety and  sent  out  to  the  members  for  consideration 
and  discussion,  before  the  assembled  body,  after  the 
reading. 

And  these  are  the  preliminary  words,  appearing 
at  the  commencement  of  their  pamphlet  publishing 
the  address: — 

"While  it  is  the  Institute's  object  to  investigate,  it 
must  not  be  held  to  endorse  the  various  views  ex- 
pressed, either  in  the  paper  or  discussions." 

But  just  how  this  body  of  learned  men  could  "in- 
vestigate or  discuss"  a  paper  that  the  assembled 
council,  manipulated  by  a  Rev.  Church  Canon,  would 
not  permit  to  be  read,  is  a  mystery  worthy  of  the 
thirteenth  century  eccjesiasticism. 

The  Rev.  Canon  Girdlestone  was  substituted  to 
give  an  address  upon  the  "Resurrection" — the  resur- 
recton  of  Jesus'  body — in  the  place  of  my  "paper." 
This  address  in  proof  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
material  body  of  Jesus  Christ,  was  tame,  painfully 
musty  with  old  theological  platitudes,  yet  soundly 
orthodox.  At  the  conclusion  of  this  Canon's  lecture, 


this  Philosophical  Society,  in  session,  gave  me  a 
unanimous  vote  of  thanks  for  my  paper,  which  they 
had  forbidden  to  be  read.  Is  it  strange  that  illus- 
trious scientists  and  liberalists  the  world  over  have 
called  "Christian  pulpits,  cowards'  castles"? 

Wisely  did  Milton  write:  "Let  truth  and  false- 
hood grapple.  Whoever  knew  truth  put  to  the  worse 
in  a  free  and  open  encounter?" 

The  president  of  this  Victoria  Institute  and  Philo- 
sophical Society  of  Great  Britain  is  the  Right  Hon- 
orable, the  Earl  of  Halsbury,  Lord  Chancellor  D.  C. 
L.,  F.  R.  S.,  etc.,  and  these  gentlemen  constitute  the 
council.  English-speaking  people  in  all  lands  have 
a  right  to  know  their  names: — 

Rev.  Principal  James  H.  Rigg,  D.  D. 

Rev.  Dr.  F.  W.  Tremlett,  D.  D.,  D.  C.  L.,  Ph.  D. 

Very  Rev.  H.  Wace,  D.  D.,  Wean  of  Canterbury  (Trustee). 

Rev.  Chancellor  J.  J.  Lias,  M.  A. 

General  G.  S.  Hallowes,  f.  c. 

Rev.  F.  A.  Walker,  D.  D.,  F.  L.  S.,  F.  R.  G.  S. 

Captain  E.  W.  Creak,  C.  B.,  R.  N.,  F.  R.  S. 

Thomas  Chaplin,  Esq.,  M.  D. 

Rev.  Canon  R.  B.  Girdlestone,  M.  A. 

Theo.  G.  Pinches,  Esq.,  LL.  D.,  M.  R.  A.  S. 

Ven.  Archdeacon  W.  M.  Sinclair,  M.  A.,  D.  D. 

Gerard  Smith,  Esq.,  M.  R.  C.  S. 

Commander  G.  P.  Heath,  R.  N. 

Rev.  Canon  Tristram,  M.  A.,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  F.  R.  S. 

Rev.  G.  F.  Whidborne,  M.  A.,  F.  G.  S.,  F.  R.  G.  S. 

His  Excellency  Lieut.-General  Sir  H.  L.  Geary,  K.  C.  B.,  R.  A. 

Walter  Kidd,  Esq.,  M.  D.,  F.  Z.  S. 

Edward  Stanley  M.  Perowne,  Esq. 

Martin  Luther  Rouse,  Esq.,  B.  L. 

Rev.  R.  Ashington  Bullen,  B.  A.,  F.  G.  S. 

Rev.  John  Tuckwell,  M.  R.  A.  S. 

Major  Kingsley  O.  Foster,  J.  P.,  F.  R.  A.  S. 

Lieut.-Colonel  George  Mackinlay. 

General  J.  G.  Halliday. 

Here  is  my  explanatory  letter  of  reproof,  appear- 
ing in  the  columns  of  London  Light,  a  very  widely 
circulated  Spiritualist  journal,  under  the  heading: 

"THE  REJECTED  ADDRESS  BY  DR. 
PEEBLES." 

It  is  with  a  modified  yet  righteous  indignation 
that  I  wish  to  put  on  record  a  recent  remarkable  and 
unique  experience. 


I  have  been  for  fifteen  years  a  promptly  paying 
member  of  the  London  Victoria  Institute  and  Philo- 
sophical Society  of  Great  Britain,  of  which  body  the 
Earl  of  Halsbury  is  president,  but  a  paper  upon 
"Immortality"  that  I  had  prepared  to  be  read  at  a 
meeting  of  that  society  on  Monday,  the  17th  inst., 
was,  at  the  last  moment,  rejected  by  the  council  in 
session. 

Though  yearly  admiring  many  of  the  essays  upon 
science  and  religion  read  and  discussed  by  this  dis- 
tinguished body,  I  felt  that  the  temple  of  this  con- 
servative Institute  needed  a  "living  stone,"  a  pres- 
ent-day inspiration;  and  from  the  best  and  highest 
motives  I  prepared  to  furnish  it  under  the  name  of 
"Immortality :  Its  Naturalness,  Its  Possibilities  and 
Proofs." 

The  thinking,  progressive  souls  of  the  twentieth 
century  do  not  care  whether  the  old  Moabites  were 
polygamists  or  monogamists;  whether  Samson 
chased  the  foxes  or  was  himself  chased  by  foxes;  but 
they  do  care  and  pray  for  the  termination  of  this 
brutal  war  between  pious  Christian  Russians  and 
the  more  enlightened  "Pagan"  Japanese ;  they  do  care 
about  the  unemployed  in  London  and  the  street-cor- 
ner beggars  in  New  York;  they  do  care  about  the 
uneducated,  half -clad  orphan  and  the  weeping  moth- 
er mourning  over  the  cold,  dead  form  of  a  loved 
child.  With  no  knowledge  of  a  future  life,  many 
Rachels  are  mourning  without  consolation ! 

Seriously  pondering  upon  these  momentous  sub- 
jects, I  selected  Immortality,  with  its  legitimate 
corollaries,  as  a  fit  subject  for  my  paper.  It  was 
duly  prepared,  and  handed  to  the  secretary,  Pro- 
fessor Edward  Hull,  LL.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  on  April  3d, 
and,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  Victoria  Insti- 
tute, it  was  printed  in  pamphlet  form,  and  sent  out 
to  many  of  the  members,  that  they  might  know  its 
contents  and  be  prepared  for  the  reading  and  the 
discussion.  The  paper  was  in  the  hands  of  the  of- 
ficials and  members  for  two  weeks.  All  seemed  well. 

10 


In  the  meantime  the  secretary  very  courteously 
wrote  to  me,  knowing  the  condition  of  my  throat  and 
lungs,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  I  would  be  able 
to  personally  read  the  paper.  The  tickets  of  invita- 
tion had  been  printed  and  distributed. 

The  hour  had  come.  The  people  had  assembled. 
The  reporters  were  at  the  table — then,  and  then 
only,  was  I  summond  into  the  council  room  and 
gravely  informed  that  the  council  had  decided  that, 
"for  good  and  sufficient  reasons/'  the  paper  was  not 
considered  appropriate  to  be  read"  before  the  mem- 
bers and  invited  guests.  Using  the  Daily  Mail's 
phrase,  the  "address  was  closured  before  it  began," 
and  the  Rev.  Canon  R.  B.  Girdlestone,  M.  A.,  was 
substituted  to  deliver  an  address  on  the  "Resurrec- 
tion." The  most  of  my  friends,  city  officials  and 
journalists,  indignantly  left  the  lecture  hall. 

The  council  having  refused  to  accept  my  paper, 
treating  of  the  evidences  of  the  Divine  existence, 
and  proofs  from  ancient  testimonies  and  present- 
day  spiritual  phenomena,  in  demonstration  of  a  fu- 
ture conscious  life,  I  withdrew  it,  and  it  is  now  my 
Eroperty.  Spiritualism  was  the  crux,  and  yet,  at  the 
ead  of  the  printed  pamphlet — sent  put  by  the  Insti- 
tute— was  this  passage :  "The  Institute's  object  be- 
ing to  investigate,  it  must  not  be  held  to  endorse  the 
various  views  expressed  either  in  the  papers  or  dis- 
cussions." But,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  professed  pur- 
pose of  this  body  to  "investigate,"  the  inquiry  nat- 
urally arises  here:  Could  the  members  of  the  In-» 
stitute  "investigate  and  discuss"  a  paper  which  was 
forbidden  to  be  "read"? 

I  need  not  dilate  upon  the  shock,  or  the  crushing, 
mortifying  position  in  which  this  belated  decision 
placed  me.  It  is  passing,  and  almost  mirthfully 
strange  that  this  council  and  the  learned  members 
had  previously  received,  and  had  discussed,  a  paper 
on  the  "Venomous  Snakes  of  India;"  and  another 
paper  (see  Vol.  XXXIII)  of  twenty-seven  pages 
was  read  by  the  Rev.  F.  A.  Walker,  D.  D.,  upon  "Hor- 

11 


nets/'  particular  stress  being  laid  upon  the  point  as 
to  what  "period  of  the  year  do  queen  hornets  leave 
their  nests." 

Think  of  it!  A  distinguished  body  of  ministers, 
clergymen,  and  titled  scientists  permitting  a  paper 
to  be  read  upon  the  characteristics  of  "Hornets"  and 
"Wasps,"  yet  rejecting  a  paper  treating  of  the  an- 
cient and  present-day  proofs  of  human  immortality ! 
As  I  have  said,  Spiritualism  was  the  crux,  and  yet 
these  clergymen  should  not  be  frightened  at  Spirit- 
ualism, when  many  of  the  brainiest  and  most  schol- 
arly men  of  the  world  are  Spiritualists — when  the 
illustrious  Dr.  Jowett,  Master  of  Balliol  College,  Ox- 
ford University,  in  a  sermon  upon  "Faith,  Doctrine, 
and  Immortality"  (p.  319),  says:  "The  spirits  and 
forms  of  the  dead  seem  to  hover  around  us  and  to 
be  about  our  bed  and  about  our  path,  sometimes  for 
a  shorter  and  sometimes  for  a  longer  period  after 
they  have  been  taken  from  us."  Jesus  asked  (I 
quote  from  memory),  "How  much,  then,  is  a  man 
better  than  a  sheep?"  and  I  shall  ever  say,  when 
thinking  of  the  Victoria  Institute  and  Philosophical 
Society  of  Great  Britain,  how  much  better  is  im- 
mortality, with  its  angel  ministries  and  spirit  mes- 
sages, than  the  "hornets  and  wasps"  and  the  "snakes 
of  India."  the  characteristics  of  which  this  Institute 
allowed  to  be  described  in  a  paper  (of  twenty-seven 
pages)  by  Sir  Joseph  Fayrer,  M.  D.,  LL.  D. 

The  extraordinary  treatment  I  have  received  from 
the  council  of  the  Victoria  Institute  excites  in  me 
not  the  least  anger,  but  rather  the  fraternal  feeling 
of  a  most  condescending  pity.  And  yet,  owing  to 
my  abiding  and  unbounded  faith  in  God  and  the  ful- 
filment of  His  mighty  purpose  in  creation,  I  believe 
in  the  future  enlightenment  and  final  salvation  of 
the  members  of  this  Institute's  council;  basing  the 
beautiful  belief  in  a  degree  upon  this  sacred  scrip- 
tural passage:  "The  Lord  preserveth  the  simple." 

J.  M.  PEEBLES,  M.  D. 

12 


The  Rejected  Address  Upon 

IMMORTALITY:      ITS    NATURALNESS,    ITS 
POSSIBILITIES  AND  PROOFS 

By  J.  M.  PEEBLES,  M.  D.,  M.  A.,   Ph.  D.,  LL.  D. 


THE  PRELUDE. 

The  poet,  Leigh  Hunt,  when  late  in  life  was  called 
the  "immortal  boy."  Youth  flushed  with  hope  has 
its  work  in  front  of  it;  while  old  age,  rich  in  experi- 
ences, calmly  awaiting  the  summons,  has  a  grand 
charm  of  its  own — a  serene  sanctity  comparable  to  a 
moss-covered  cathedral,  within  which  are  devotion, 
meditation  and  uplifting  music. 

Old  age  does  not  hinge  upon  the  number  of  years 
lived.  The  honorable  and  venerable  who  have  lived 
in  obedience  to  the  divine  laws  of  nature,  and  in 
continuous  activity,  have  some  noble  purpose  in 
view,  have  no  sense  of  the  phrase  "outlived  their 
usefulness. "  These  last  are  their  best  days.  There 
is  a  desert  palm  in  our  American  west-lands  famous 
for  a  single  flowering  bud.  The  bud  unfolds,  sheds 
it  fragrance  and  dies;  but  the  palm  tree  itself, 
straight  .and  stately,  continues  to  grow.  Life  and 
death  are  not  only  natural,  but  beautiful  in  their 
time  and  place. 

The  falling  and  disappearance  of  the  body  is  inci- 
dent to  the  birth  of  the  spirit,  which  when  passing 
into  the  many-mansioned  house  of  the  Father,  often 
signals  backward  and  whispers,  "I  still  live." 

Having  passed  by  a  number  of  years  the  mile- 
stones that  mark  the  octogenarian's  life  journey, 
and  facing — as  I  calmly  do — the  fading  sunset  of 
mortality,  it  is  only  natural  that  I  should  very  seri- 
ously ask,  Does  man  conscientiously  survive  death? 

13 


And  if  so,  what  awaits  him  beyond  that  cold,  grim 
portal? 

In  this  essay,  involving  some  of  the  testimonies  of 
the  past  and  some  present  evidences  of  a  future  con- 
scious existence,  looking  to  immortality  in  the  sense 
of  endlessness  of  being,  I  dp  not  appear  in  the  role 
of  the  teacher.  Far  from  it.  Nor  do  I  profess  in 
the  least  to  have  exhausted  a  subject  that  has  occu- 
pied the  attention  of  eminent  minds  in  all  ages ;  but 
I  appear  rather  in  the  nature  of  one  thinking  aloud 
— one  talking  confidentially  to  himself  upon  a  great, 
upon  an  all-important  subject;  or  as  one  openly  ex- 
posing his  thought-out  conception  and  matured  con- 
victions with  some  of  the  more  potent  reasons  for 
entertaining  them  as  shields  and  supports,  as  helps 
to  faith  and  knowledge,  while  nearing  day  by  day 
the  boundary  of  mortality. 


THE  ADDRESS 

The  greatest  and  most  all-incisive  word  that  ever 
fell  from  human  lips  in  English-speaking  countries 
is  — God !  The  Christ  did  not  say,  "God  is  a  spirit," 
but  "Pneuma  Ho  Theos"  God  is  spirit;  and  spirit, 
embodying  consciousness,  life,  purpose,  wisdom  and 
will,  lies  at  the  foundation  of  and  is  the  original  gen- 
erating cause  of  all  things  from  the  amoeba  up  to 
man,  who  stands  upon  the  very  apex  of  earth's  or- 
ganic pyramid,  the  crowning  glory  of  nature. 

Belief  in  the  existence  of  God  is  intuitive,  and  in 
some  form  and  under  some  name  is  as  universal  as 
the  races  and  tribes  of  humanity.  Circumnavigating 
this  planet  several  times  and  meeting  some  of  the 
lowest  specimens  of  the  human  species,  such  as  the 
Bushmen  of  Australia,  the  natives  of  New  Zealand, 
the  black  tribes  of  Central  Africa  and  the  wood- 
fiber-clad  natives  of  the  Pacific  Islands,  I  have  no 
hesitation  in  stating  emphatically  that  these  bar- 
barous and  semi-barbarous  tribes  have  some  con- 

14 


ception  of  gods,  or  of  an  overruling,  Supreme  Being, 
to  whom  they  rear  rude  altars  and  have  some  unique 
forms  of  worship. 

It  may  be  further  stated  that  the  God-idea  springs 
up  in  human  nature  spontaneously,  and  belongs  to 
the  moral  necessity  of  things.  It  is  deeply  rooted 
in  the  conscious  minds  of  all  reasoning  human  intel- 
ligences. It  is  intuitional  if  not  axiomatic,  and  re- 
quires in  support  of  faith  therein,  no  more  labored 
and  logical  proofs  than  does  the  existence  of  space  in 
which  minor  objects  move  and  planets  revolve. 

True,  there  are  arches  with  imperfect  keystones; 
there  are  temples  illconstructed  to  architectural  ad- 
justment ;  there  are  art  failures  from  color-blindness. 
These,  though  misfortunes,  are  not  irremediable. 
And  then,  there  are  quite  intelligent  men  born  with 
such  coronal  brain-depressed  organizations  as  to  put 
them  in  the  category  of  postponed  possibilities  of 
full-orbed  men.  These  doubt  God,  deny  the  historic 
Jesus,  question  a  future  life,  antagonize  religion, 
and  strive  to  find  a  moral  sustenance  in  the  leprosy 
of  a  dreary,  atheistic  materialism. 

The  much-exploited  phrase  in  the  vocabulary  of 
agnosticism,  "The  Unknowable"  rooted  in  the  rela- 
tivity of  knowledge,  has  few  charms  for  the  erudite 
thinker  or  religious  philosopher.  Gravitation,  the 
omega  of  our  knowledge  in  physics,  is  unknowable. 
We  only  know  something  of  its  effects.  Neither 
scientists  nor  psycho-physicists  can,  with  the  most 
delicate  instruments,  verify  the  presence  of  ether, 
yet  they  say  it  must  exist,  because  light  and  heat 
cannot  pierce  and  pass  through  perfect  emptiness. 
But  whether  ether  be  homogeneous  world-stuff,  or 
whether  it  consists  of  Leibnitz's  monads  or  of  dis- 
crete units  filling  all  space,  no  one  knows.  It  is  un- 
knowable. And  yet  the  most  advanced  philosophers 
and  astronomers  believe  in  it  as  a  frictionless  pres- 
ence, permeating  space, — believe  in  it  not  only  as  a 
possibility,  but  as  an  indispensable  necessity. 

"God,"    exclaimed    the    enthused    Neo-Platonian 

15 


Proclus,  "is  Causation."  Causation  implies  intelli- 
gence and  energy.  And  conscious  intelligence 
towards  a  given  end  implies  purpose,  wisdom  and 
power.  These  are  everywhere  manifest  in  this 
measureless  and  orderly  universe.  And  unquestion- 
ably, finite  order  could  no  more  plan  and  constitute 
itself  than  books  could  print  themselves,  or  than 
chaos  could  plan  and  constitute  Kosmos.  Neither 
could  order  and  chance  exist  together  at  the  same 
time  in  a  universe  of  unconditioned  Causation.  They 
are  direct  contraries.  Nor  could  there  be  order  and 
immutable  law  without  an  all-energizing  and  over- 
ruling Author — which  Author,  God,  makes  life,  evol- 
ution, order,  harmony  and  morality  possible.  Fur- 
ther, the  fixed  motions  of  the  universe,  in  all  their 
intermingling,  tortuous  varieties  (yet  of  inherent 
unity  in  origin),  are  strictly  mathematical — strictly 
governed  by  law,  else  no  eclipse  could  be  astronom- 
ically calculated  decades  of  years  before  its  appear- 
ance. 

Furthermore,  God  is  not  a  heartless  absentee  from 
this  pulsing,  mind-thrilled  universe  of  life.  He  is 
imminent  in  the  opening  bud,  in  the  planetary  spaces 
and  in  the  hearts  of  all  reasoning  men  as  the  highest 
ideal,  the  Final  Perfection.  Indeed,  the  Divine  Ex- 
istence, as  the  self-conscious  Reality,  is  self-evident, 
and  that  which  is  self-evident  to  sane  minds  and 
savants  does  not  depend  upon  or  require  a  multi-. 
plicity  of  evidences  for  verification. 

It  was  Descartes  who,  founding  positive  know- 
ledge upon  self -consciousness,  affirmed  this :  "Cogito 
Ergo  Sum'1  (I  think,  therefore  I  am).  This  was 
not  a  petitio  principii — a  begging  of  the  question,  as 
ultra  materialists  have  repeatedly  stated,  because  in 
thinking,  something  is  done,  which  something  (the 
reyerse  of  nothing)  implies  a  conscious  actor,  the 
existing  Ego.  I  think — I  cognize — and  cognition, 
related  to  intuition,  knows — knows  something  of 
Causation,  for  it  is  ever  existing  and  ever  manifest- 
ing as  cause  and  effect.  Intuition  (I  purposely  avoid 

16 


the  phrase,  "First  Cause")  being  the  immediate  per- 
ception of  fundamental  and  essential  truth,  ^  ante- 
cedent to  and  independent  of  reason,  education  or 
experience,  knows — satisfactorily  knows  that  un- 
caused Causation  must  be  a  finality. 

Had  the  philosophizing  Proclus  said,  "God  is  con- 
scious Causation,"  he  would  nearly  have  reached  the 
exalted  moral  altitude  of  the  Christ,  who  declared, 
"God  is  Spirit."  Evidently  God,  while  pure  in 
spirit,  is  both  personal  and  impersonal,  center  and 
circumference — measureless — infinite.  His  oneness, 
his  inscrutable  individuality,  plus  personality  with 
its  attributes,  is  predicated  of  consciousness,  pur- 
pose and  will,  and  his  Divine  Personality  implies 
energy,  life,  design,  determination,  power,  wisdom 
and  love.  These  are  the  major  attributes  of  person- 
ality, and  are  manifest  from  seashore  sands  to  the 
stars  and  suns  that  dot  the  mighty  immensities 
above  us. 

Be  sure,  we  can  never  comprehend  the  incompre- 
hensible; we  may  never  know  God  in  his  absolute 
totality,  but  we  may  know  and  do  know  enough  of 
him — enough  of  this  great,  good,  Almighty  Spirit- 
Presence,  through  revelation  and  intuition  and 
through  the  stupendous  works  of  nature,  to  call 
forth  our  unbounded  confidence  and  profoundest 
reverence.  Encircled  in  the  Divine  embrace  and 
leaning  upon  the  loving  bosom  of  this  infinite  Ten- 
derness— this  Divine  Reality — is  my  spirit's  abiding 
trust  and  rest.  Though  "He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust 
in  Him." 

The  great,  the  mightiest  phrase  of  all,  however, 
is  as  aforesaid,  "God  is  Spirit,"  pure,  e  immutable, 
absolute  and  omnipresent;  and  man,  being  made  in 
the  image  of  God,  is  necessarily  a  spiritual  being. 
We  are  all  his  offspring,  according  to  both  Grecian 
poesy  and  apostolic  inspiration.  And  it  is  the  spirit 
that  is  immortal,  and  not  the  soul.  Mark  well  this 
point:  not  the  soul.  It  is  no  more  astronomically 
incorrect  to  speak  of  the  "sun  rising  in  the  morn- 

17 


ing,"  than  it  is  to  religiously  speak  of  the  "immor- 
tality of  the  soul."  No  such  phrases  as  the  "im- 
mortal soul"  or  the  "immortality  of  the  soul"  occur 
in  either  the  Old  or  New  Testament.  Philo  Judaeas, 
as  did  several  Grecian  and  Roman  writers  of  the 
first  centuries  of  Christianity,  differentiated  "soul" 
and  "spirit;"  so  also  did  Paul  when  speaking  of  "the 
quick  and  powerful  word  of  God,"  that  "divided 
asunder  soul  and  spirit."  And  again,  in  writing  to 
certain  Thessalonians,  he  exclaimed:  "I  pray  God 
that  your  whole  spirit,  soul  and  body  be  pre- 
served blameless  until  the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ." 

This  triune  manifestation  of  expression  relating 
to  man  in  his  essential  wholeness  is  not  especially 
peculiar  to  Biblical  psychology,  for  several  Greek 
philosophers  are  reported  to  have  taught,  though 
in  different  phraseology,  the  same  rational  truth. 
The  Roman  Marcus  Aurelius,  while  urging  that  life 
was  a  unit — that  the  sensations  were  subjective — 
taught  also  that  the  "soul  (the  soul-body)  was  a  re- 
fined, corporeal  organism." 

Alford,  in  his  Greek  Testament,  declares  that 
Pneuma  is  the  highest  and  distinctive  part  of  man, 
while  the  Psuche,  the  lower  or  animal  soul,  contains 
the  desires  and  passions  which  we  have  in  common 
with  the  brutes. 

Auberlin,  a  Tubingen  graduate  and  Bassel  pro- 
fessor of  theology,  states  that  "the  spirit  is  the  spir- 
itual nature  of  man  as  directed  upward,  and  is  capa- 
ble of  a  living  intercommunion  with  God,  while  the 
soul  is  the  diffused,  quickening  power  of  the  body, 
as  in  animals,  and  pertaining  to,  is  excitable  through 
the  senses." 

Porter,  on  "The  Human  Intellect,"  declares  that 
the  word  "soul"  differs  from  spirit  as  the  species 
from  the  genus;  souls  being  limited  to  a  spirit  that 
either  is  or  has  been  connected  with  a  body  or  ma- 
terial organization,  while  a  spirit  may  be  applied 
to  a  being  which  has  not  at  present,  or  is  believed 
never  to  have  had,  such  physical  connection. 

18 


Professor  Schubert,  a  follower  of  Schelling,  states 
that  "the  soul  is  the  inferior  part  of  every  intellec- 
tual nature,  the  interior  organism,  while  the  Spirit 
is  that  part  of  our  nature  which  tends  to  the  purely 
rational,  the  lofty  and  the  divine." 

Delitzsch,  in  his  Biblical  Psychology,  assures  us 
that  the  "psychical  functions  of  the  soul  are  types 
of  the  spiritual  functions,  the  broken  rays  of  their 
colors.  But  the  soul  is  no  Ego.  It  is  to  be  distin- 
guished from  the  spirit.  The  inner  self-conscious- 
ness, which  forms  the  background  of  the  spirit- 
copied  functions,  is  that  of  the  spirit,  and  is  related 
to  the  Infinite  Spirit  from  which  it  has  its  origin." 

Man,  in  his  completeness,  it  must  be  remembered, 
is  a  trinity  in  unity,  and  this  idea  of  the  trinity  runs 
like  a  continuous  golden  cord  through  all  things,  vis- 
ible and  invisible — Father,  Logos,  Holy  Spirit — 
cause,  means,  effects — the  root,  the  trunk,  the  fruit- 
age— the  self-conscious  spirit,  the  particled  soul- 
body,  the  physical  human  organism — Man ! 

How  true  the  Biblical  teaching:  God  breathed 
into  man  the  spirit  (ruach)  of  life,  and  he  became 
a  living  human  being.  When  the  disciples  saw 
Jesus  walking  upon  the  sea,  they  said,  "It  is  a  spir- 
it." In  this  phrase  they  expressed  the  common  be- 
lief of  those  times  in  the  conscious  presence  of  the 
spirits  of  the  dead.  Says  the  French  academician, 
Renan:  "The  group  that  pressed  around  Jesus  on 
the  banks  of  the  lake  Tiberias  believed  in  appari- 
tions and  spirits.  Great  spiritual  manifestations 
were  present.  .  .  .  All  believed  themselves  to  be 
inspired  in  different  ways ;  some  were  prophets,  some 
teachers,  and  others  spake  in  tongues."  These  won- 
derful works  were  wrought  in  the  very  face  of  ag- 
nostic Sadduceeism  and  sacredotal  Phariseeism. 
The  cries  of  "Beelzebub!  and  of  Magic!"  were  of 
no  avail.  "Judge  ye  of  yourselves,"  were  the  fervid 
words  of  the  Christ.  Soul  (Nephesh,  in  the  He- 
brew) has  been  a  sort  of  a  verbal  vehicle  for  many 
ambiguous  ideas.  In  Biblical  language,  souls  are 

19 


born  and  souls  die.  "The  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall 
die;"  and  the  New  Testament  speaks  of  "Him  who 
was  able  to  destroy  both  soul  and  body  in  hell;"  but 
the  destruction  of  the  spirit,  inbreathed  by  God, 
was  never  taught  (if  memory  serves  me)  by  any 
classical  scholar  or  any  of  the  early  Christian 
writers. 

The  ruach  (Hebrew),  pneuma  (Greek)  is  not 
an  accumulation  of  aggregates — not  a  bundle  of 
thoughts,  emotions  and  warring  attributes;  but  is 
noncomposite,  uncompounded  and  indestructible — an 
involutional  influx  from  God,  the  One — the  All — who 
alone  hath  underived  immortality. 

The  apostolic  writers  considered  men  in  their 
fleshly  and  soul-bodies  as  dominated  by  the  spirit, 
and  this  analysis  into  the  somatic,  the  psychic  and 
the  pneumatic  is  clearly  maintained  in  their  writ- 
ings. Jesus,  in  soul-agony,  cried  out,  "Father,  into 
thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit."  God  is  not  pro- 
nounced the  Father  of  the  bodies  nor  of  the  souls  of 
men,  but  he  is  called  the  "God  of  the  spirits  of  all 
flesh."  When  the  first  martyr,  Stephen,  fell  be- 
neath the  stones  of  murderers,  he  exclaimed,  "Lord 
Jesus,  receive  my  spirit;"  and  dying,  he  joined  "the 
spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect."  "There  is  a  spirit 
(conscious  force)  in  man,"  exclaimed  the  prophet, 
"and  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty  giveth  it  un- 
derstanding." Just  what  the  inherent  essence  of 
this  spirit — this  Ego — is,  besides  being  conscious, 
finite,  limited  in  power,  and  uncompounded,  we  may 
as  well  say,  with  the  old  Roman  Ovid:  "Causa 
Latet;  vis  est  notissima  (fontis)" — "The  cause  is 
hidden ;  the  effect  is  visible  to  all."  And  this  "visible 
effect"  of  the  spirit  is  consciousness,  purpose  and 
will,  manifesting  through  the  soul,  or  rather  the 
soul-body,  and  called  by  Paul  the  "spiritual  body;" 
by  theosophists,  the  "astral  body;"  by  psychic  re- 
searchers, the  "etheric  body;"  and  by  cultured  ideal- 
ists, the  "subjective  body." 

This  soul-body,  or  subjective  body,  as  believed  by 

20 


Spiritualists  (I  have  here  used  the  word  "Spiritual- 
ists" as  the  direct  antithesis  of  materialists),  is  a 
substantial,  organized  entity,  an  aggregate  of  sub- 
limated elements,  and  the  counterpart  in  form  of 
the  physical  body.  Every  permanent  form  neces- 
sarily has  a  germinal  attracting  center,  and  the  ger- 
minal magnetic  center  of  the  soul-body  is  the  con- 
scious, intelligent  spirit,  inbreathed  from  God  at  the 
beginning  of  this  planet's  cycle  of  human  exist- 
ence. Further,  this  soul-body,  the  intermediary  be- 
tween the  physical  body  and  the  abiding  spirit,  is 
particled  and  constituted,  in  part  at  least,  of  the 
emanations  from  the  infinitesimally  minute  atoms, 
electrons,  unseen  aromas,  imponderable  elements, 
and  the  subtle  essences  eliminated  from  the  earthly 
body  in  its  varied  attitudes  and  activities.  This 
particled,  fluidic  soul,  or  soul-body,  is  the  vehicle, 
the  etheric  clothing  of  the  immortal  spirit.  It  is  this 
body  that  is  resurrected  out  of  the  physical,  perish- 
ing body  at  death.  The  resurrection  from  mortality 
into  immortality  is  perpetual.  "Now  that  the  dead 
are  raised,"  said  Jesus,  "Moses  showed  at  the  bush." 

There  never  was  a  more  irrational,  illogical  the- 
ory put  forward,  or  a  greater  mental  failure  exhib- 
ited relating  to  immortality,  than  that  of  a  few 
necromancy  practitioners  who  have  attempted  to  ac- 
count for  the  existence  of  spirit,  or  of  spiritual  beings, 
from  the  conjunction  and  molecular  interaction  of 
two  unknowables,  matter  and  force;  both,  so  far  as 
we  know,  non-conscious.  Nothing  is  absolutely 
known  of  the  ultimate  nature  of  matter. 
Much  is  said  and  written  of  its  properties  and  qual- 
ities; but  these,  known  only  in  terms  of  mind,  point 
to  a  primordial,  unexplored  substratum — nothing 
more.  The  primordial  foundation  of  immortality, 
then,  can  be  logically  predicated  and  substantiated 
only  of  the  two  factors,  self-conscious  Spirit  and  ten- 
uous, invisible  substance — the  One  in  two  expres- 
sions. 

The  structural  plan  of  nature,  through  intermedi- 

21 


ate,  physical  forms,  each  and  all  afire  with  the  Di- 
vine purpose,  was  undoubtedly  from  the  animalcule 
up  to  man — man,  with  his  feet  fast  upon  the  earth, 
and  his  head,  in  inspiration  and  thought,  among 
the  blazing  stars,  symbolizing  his  destiny. 

Students  of  nature,  physiology,  psychology,  psy- 
chometry  and  phrenology — especially  the  latter — in 
their  varied  experimental  demonstrations,  such  as 
applying  the  galvanic  current  to  certain  brain  areas 
in  both  men  and  animals,  witnessed,  through  this 
stimulation,  the  production  of  muscular  movement, 
and  later  determined  the  location  of  organ  and  func- 
tion. They  were  at  first  almost  amazed  at  the  emo- 
tions and  faculties  aroused,  evolved,  and  so  located 
in  particular  cranial  centers. 

None  acquainted  with  the  investigations  of  Gall, 
Spurzheim,  Combe,  Fowler,  the  late  Dr.  John  Elliot- 
son  (president  of  a  medical  society  and  professor  at 
the  University  of  London),  Professor  Hidjig  of 
Baden,  Dr.  Hollander,  Professor  Ferrier,  Alfred  R. 
Wallace,  naturalist  and  scientist,  and  others  can 
doubt  that  the  brain  is  the  home,  the  center-station 
of  the  conscious  spirit.  Exciting  definite  portions 
of  the  cranial  areas  in  monkeys,  there  were  produced 
effects  corresponding  to  the  located  organs  claimed 
by  phrenologists  as  manifesting  certain  aptitudes 
relating  to  the  mental  characteristics  of  mankind, 
the  cerebellum,  relating  to  the  physical  nature  and 
animal  activities,  the  front  brain  to  the  intellect, 
and  the  top-brain,  or  coronal  region,  to  hope,  faith, 
conscience,  reverence  and  spirituality.  And  these, 
the  highest  organs  of  the  head,  are  located  directly 
over  the  great  central  seat  of  the  self-conscious 
spirit.  True,  Dr.  Carpenter  contended  that  the  back- 
head  was  the  seat  of  the  intellect,  but  the  Doctor 
years  ago  was  himself  a  conservative  back-chapter 
in  the  revelations  of  psychological  and  phrenological 
research.  It  is  admitted  that  the  most  of  the  ex- 
periments by  Ferrier  were  with  monkeys  and  other 
animals,  but  monkeys  think,  have  intellects,  and  they 

at 


reason  upon  their  plane  of  instinctive  development; 
and  yet,  unquestionably,  they  lack  the  top-brain 
parlors,  the  moral  and  spiritual  nature.  They  never 
transmit  their  knowledge;  never  show  remorse  of 
conscience;  never  pray,  nor  "chatter,"  so  far  as  we 
know,  of  the  hope  and  joyousness  of  a  fadeless  im- 
mortality. 

It  must  be  evident,  not  only  to  psychologists, 
phrenologists  and  psycho-physicists,  but  to  every 
studious  and  profound  investigator  of  the  brain,  that 
while  it  is  a  congeries  of  organs,  every  organ  implies 
a  function,  and  every  function  indicates  a  present 
purpose  being  fulfilled,  or  a  prophetic  purpose  to 
be  actualized  and  fulfilled  in  a  future  state  of  ex- 
istence. 

It  may  be  further  stated  that  the  cortex  of  the 
brain,  the  instrument  of  the  spirit,  develops  from 
the  interior  outward,  the  lower,  deeper  stratum  be- 
ing the  first  to  unfold  and  that  there  are  embryonic 
cells  in  the  process  of  formation  representing  the 
higher  nature,  suggesting  moral  and  spiritual  possi- 
bilities not  yet  achieved — possibilities  which  demand 
a  future  realm  of  existence  for  their  unfoldment 
and  realization. 

Summarizing  the  foregoing,  as  relating  to  immor- 
tality, we  see  that  God  is  Spirit ;  and,  human  beings 
being  made  in  the  image  of  God,  are  necessarily 
moral  and  spiritual  beings,  and  spiritual  beings  (not 
originating  in  matter)  naturally  survive  death. 

The  universality  of  the  belief  in  immortality  in- 
dicates that  it  has  a  natural  basic  foundation  in  the 
human  constitution,  the  central  force  of  which  is 
spirit. 

This  life  does  not  give  sufficient  time  for  the  ad- 
justment of  errors  and  malicious-planned  wrongs  in 
the  social  and  moral  channels  of  sowing  and  reap- 
ing. Remorse,  with  the  lowest  classes,  often  merges 
into  a  sort  of  personal  Utopia.  They  smile  while 
they  murder;  hence  a  disciplinary  life  hereafter  is 

23 


necessary  to  adjust  the  character-equilibriums  be- 
tween cause  and  effect,  retribution  and  reformation, 
justice  and  mercy. 

The  deep,  fervid  desire  for  knowledge,  progress 
and  perfect  felicity,  cannot  under  any  circum- 
stances, be  attained  in  this  brief  life;  therefore  the 
necessity  for  a  future  life,  for  the  consummation  of 
whatever  is  noblest  and  purest  in  this  preliminary 
and  checkered  state  of  existence. 

Human  bodies,  like  trees  in  a  forest,  grow,  attain 
their  limits  and  fall,  while  the  conscious  spirit  of 
the  thinker,  the  idealist,  the  moralist,  the  philos- 
opher, though  reaching  a  ripening  old  age,  has  barely 
touched  the  life-limits  of  capacities  and  mighty  pos- 
sibilities. Therefore,  the  demand  for  a  future  life, 
with  its  superior  opportunities  and  its  attending 
heavenly  helpers. 

Today's  highest  delights  are  found  in  the  widen- 
ing fields  of  knowledge,  in  solving  the  mysteries  of 
nature,  in  conquering  intruding  environments,  in 
the  projection  of  good  thoughts,  in  the  reaching  up- 
ward for  loftier  ideals ;  but  these  ideals  are  never  at- 
tained in  this  life ;  therefore  the  moral  necessity  for 
a  future  life  where  ideals  are  attained  and  faith 
ripens  out  into  fruition. 

The  life-principle,  centered  in  the  simple  cell  of 
the  amoeba,  prophesied  of  higher  forms.  And  these, 
in  connection  with  the  upward  trend  of  things,  from 
the  less  to  the  more  complex,  prophesied  of  man. 
And  the  ordained  and  immutable  law  of  unfoldment 
being  interminable,  rational  man  today,  afire  with 
hope,  aspiration,  possibility  and  spiritually  tethered 
to  and  affiliated  with  the  Infinite  Cause,  prophesies 
of  immortality,  without  which^this  life  is  a  painful 
blunder  —  a  meaningless  failure  —  a  tantalizing 
dream,  and  morality,  madness  itself. 

Said  the  great  Grecian :  "When,  therefore,  death 
approaches  a  man,  the  mortal  part  of  him,  as  it  ap- 
pears, dies,  but  the  immortal  part  departs,  safe  and 

24 


uncorrupted,  having  withdrawn  itself  from  death." 
— Plato. 

"As  they  who  run  a  race  are  not  crowned  till 
they  have  conquered,  so  good  men  believe  that  the 
reward  of  virtue  is  not  fully  given  till  after  death. 
.  .  .  Not  by  lamentations  and  mournful  chants 
ought  we  to  celebrate  the  funerals  of  the  good,  but 
by  hymns ;  for  in  ceasing  to  be  numbered  with  mor- 
tals, they  enter  upon  a  diviner  life." — Plutarch. 

"If  my  body  be  overpressed,  it  must  descend  to 
the  destined  place;  nevertheless  my  spirit  shall  not 
descend,  but,  after  being  a  thing  immortal,  shall  fly 
upward  to  high  heaven." — Heraclitus. 

"A  man  ought  to  have  confidence  then  about  his 
spirit,  if  during  this  life  he  has  made  it  beautiful 
with  temperance,  justice,  fortitude,  freedom  and 
truth  he  waits  for  his  entrance  into  the  world  of 
spirits  as  one  who  is  ready  to  depart  when  destiny 
calls.  I  shall  not  remain,  I  shall  depart.  Do  not 
say  then  that  Socrates  is  buried ;  say  that  you  bury 
my  body." — Socrates. 

"The  origin  of  spirits  cannot  be  found  upon  earth, 
for  there  is  nothing  earthly  in  them.  They  have 
faculties  which  claim  to  be  called  divine,  and  which 
can  never  be  shown  to  have  come  to  man  from  any 
source  but  God.  The  nature  in  us  which  thinks, 
which  knows,  which  lives,  is  celestial,  and  for  that 
reason  necessarily  eternal.  ...  It  cannot  be  de- 
stroyed." Further,  Cicero  represents  the  aged  Cato 
as  exclaiming,  "0  happy  day  when  I  shall  remove 
from  this  crowd  of  mortals,  to  go  and  join  the  divine 
assembly  of  the  gods.  Not  only  shall  I  meet  again 
there  the  men  who  have  lived  godlike  on  earth;  I 
shall  find  again  my  son,  to  whom  these  aged  hands 
have  performed  the  duties  which  in  the  order  of 
nature  he  should  have  rendered  to  me.  His  spirit 
has  never  quitted  me.  He  departed,  turning  his 
eyes  upon  me  and  calling  on  me,  for  that  place  where 
he  knew  I  should  soon  come.  If  I  have  borne  his 
loss  with  courage,  it  is  not  that  my  heart  was  un- 

25 


feeling,  but  I  consoled  myself  with  the  thought  that 
our  separation  would  not  be  long." — Cicero. 

The  foregoing  thoughts,  in  connection  with  sci- 
ence and  scientific  demonstrations,  such  as  wireless 
telegraphy,  wireless  telephony,  optical  instruments 
enabling  one  to  see  the  lips  of  persons  in  conversa- 
tion several  miles  distant;  sympathetic  suggestion, 
subjective  intelligence,  telepathy,  permitting  the 
transmission  of  thought-force  through  ethereal  vi- 
brations, connecting  under  supranormal  conditions 
the  fleshed  with  the  unfleshed  and  psychic  lucidity, 
of  which  the  X-ray  is  a  fine  physical  symbol — these, 
all  these,  reaching  to  the  very  verge  of  materialistic 
mortality,  impinge  upon,  take  hold  of  and  prophesy 
of  a  future,  never-ending  existence. 

The  recorded  phenomena  of  remotest  antiquity, 
the  revelations  of  the  Oriental  races,  the  historic  rec- 
ords of  Brahmins,  Buddhists,  Jews,  Christians,  as 
well  as  the  oracles  of  Greece  and  Rome,  all  abound 
in  abundant  testimonies  of  a  conscious  existence  be- 
yond the  silence  of  the  tomb. 

In  a  special  and  most  marvelous  manner  Christ 
"brought  life  and  immortality  to  light,"  to  the  proud, 
ceremonial  Pharisee  and  to  the  agnostic  Sadducee. 
Long  and  often  had  the  Judean  Hebrew  asked,  "If 
a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again?"  Long  had  the  Jew- 
ish people  sat  in  the  shadow  of  darkness.  "All  our 
fathers  were  under  the  cloud,"  wrote  Paul  to  the 
Corinthians.  Therefore  when  Christ  took  the  dead 
maid  by  the  hand  and  said,  "Arise,  her  spirit  came 
back  to  her  again;"  and  when  they  heard  the  com- 
manding voice,  "Lazarus,  come  forth,"  they  were  not 
only  startled,  but  convinced  that  the  dead  live  again. 

After  the  resurrection  of  the  Christ  in  his  sub- 
jective or  soul-body,  being  seen  of  Cephas,  then  of 
the  twelve,  then  "about  five  hundred  brethren  at 
once,"  and  then,  exclaims  Paul,  "Last  of  all  he  was 
seen  by  me  also."  And  further,  when  on  his  way  to 
Damascus,  commissioned  by  the  Chief  Priests,  he 
saw  at  midday  (as  did  the  others  journeying  with 

26 


him)  a  light  from  heaven,  above  the  brightness  of 
the  sun,  shining  about  him,  and  out  of  the  silence  he 
heard  a  voice  saying  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  "Saul, 
Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  me?  And  I  said,  Who 
art  thou,  Lord?"  He  replied,  "I  am  Jesus  whom 
thou  persecutest.  Rise,  stand  upon  thy  feet.  I  have 
appeared  unto  thee  for  the  purpose  of  making  thee 
a  minister  and  a  witness." 

Having  been  a  witness  of  such  astounding  spir- 
itual manifestations,  the  apostle  could  well  say: 
"For  we  know  that  if  our  earthly  house  of  this 
tabernacle  were  dissolved,  we  have  a  building  of 
God,  an  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the 
heavens." 

Again  he  says:  "Coming  to  visions  and  revela- 
tions," he  knew  a  man  "caught  up  to  the  third 
heaven"  into  paradise,  hearing  there  "unspeakable 
words."  And  while  praying  in  the  temple  he  de- 
clares that  "he  was  in  a  trance." 

Similar  phenomena  confirming  the  future  life 
antedate  and  succeed  Christianity.  God  is  no  re- 
specter of  either  persons  or  nations. 

Epimenides,  contemporary  of  Solon,  received,  so 
he  stated,  divine  revelations  from  the  overshadow- 
ing spiritual  heavens. 

Zeno  affirmed  that  tutelary  gods  or  guardian 
spirits  inspired  his  speech  and  at  times  influenced 
his  actions. 

Ulysses,  in  the  eleventh  book  of  the  Odyssey,  is 
declared  to  have  visited  the  underworld  region,  con-; 
versing  with  the  spirit  of  Tyresius  Elpenon  and  his 
own  mother,  receiving  great  consolation. 

Minucius  Felix,  a  Roman  author  (about  189  A. 
D.),  in  the  "Octavius,"  Chap,  xxix,  writes  thus: 
"There  are  some  sincere  and  vagrant  spirits,  de- 
graded from  their  heavenly  vigor  by  their  earthly 
stains  and  lusts.  Now,  these  spirits,  after  having 
lost  the  simplicity  of  their  nature  by  being  weighed 
down  and  immersed  in  vices  for  a  solace  for  their 
calamities,  cease  not,  now  that  they  are  ruined 

27 


themselves,  to  ruin  others ;  and  being  depraved  them- 
selves, to  infuse  into  others  the  error  of  their  deprav- 
ity. The  poets  know  that  these  spirits  are  demons, 
and  the  philosophers  discourse  of  them." 

Origen,  the  erudite  Christian  Father,  writing 
against  his  atheistic  antagonist,  Celsus  (200  A.  D.), 
says:  "Celsus  has  compared  the  miracles  (spiritual 
manifestations)  of  Jesus  to  the  tricks  of  jugglers 
and  the  magic  of  Egyptians,  and  there  would  in- 
deed be  a  resemblance  between  them  if  Jesus,  like 
the  practitioners  of  magic  arts,  had  performed  his 
works  only  for  show  or  worldly  gain." 

Tertulian,  in  his  celebrated  work,  "De  Anima," 
says :  "We  had  a  right  to  anticipate  prophecies  and 
the  continuance  of  spiritual  gifts,  and  we  are  now 
permitted  to  enjoy  the  gift  of  a  prophetess.  There 
is  a  sister  among  us  who  possesses  the  faculty  of 
revelation.  Commonly,  during  religious  services, 
she  falls  into  a  trance,  holding  then  communion  with 
angels,  beholding  Jesus  himself,  hearing  divine  mys- 
teries explained,  reading  the  hearts  of  some  persons, 
.and  administering  to  such  as  require  it." 

For  three  hundred  years  after  the  apostles'  time, 
visions,  trances,  apparitions,  healing  gifts  and  spir- 
itual marvels  abounded  in  all  Christian  societies 
and  countries.  And  why  should  they  not,  since  Jesus 
expressly  said :  "These  signs  shall  follow  them  that 
believe"?  And  again,  "Greater  works  than  these 
shall  ye  do,  for  I  go  unto  my  Father."  And  still 
again :  "Lo !  I  am  with  you  alway  unto  the  end  of 
the  world." 

Do  these  signs,  these  demonstrations,  these  mani- 
festations, visions  and  trances  and  gift  of  tongues, 
among  which  also  was  "the  discerning  of  spirits" 
(see  1  Cor.  xii)  abound  in  churches  or  in  the  Chris- 
tian nations  today?  Far  from  it.  As  prophesied, 
they  have  "fallen  away,"  fallen  into  divided  sects, 
of  which  there  are  157  in  our  own  United  States, 
including  Christian  Scientists;  fallen  into  the  whirl- 
pool of  competition  for  pelf  and  power,  into  the 

28 


maelstrom  of  selfish  worldliness,  causing  caste 
wranglings,  blood-crimsoned  battle-fields — murders 
on  a  massive  and  merciless  scale ! 

Christ's  promised  gifts,  be  it  said  in  sorrow,  no 
longer  abound  in  the  churches.  Atheistic  material- 
ists, agnostics  and  honest,  cultured  doubters  are  ask- 
ing, why?  since  God  and  his  laws  are  unchangeable. 
They  are  asking  for  clear,  now-a-day  evidences,  for 
terse,  positive,  present-time  proofs  of  a  life  here- 
after. Do  they  get  them  from  popes,  priests  and 
parsons?  Furthest  from  it  possible.  These  can  only 
point  inquirers  to  the  oracles  of  old,  or  remind  them 
of  the  New  Testament  miracles  and  records. 

Then  comes  the  prompt  response :  Those  are  not 
now-a-day  evidences.  They  are  ancient,  long  ago 
testimonies — testimonies  by  unknown  authors — tes- 
timonies collected  and 'booked  long  after  their  re- 
ported occurrences.  And,  further,  they  were  "voted 
upon"  by  interested  priests  and  bishops  in  Roman 
Catholic  councils,  and  have  during  the  warring  cen- 
turies been  manipulated,  revised  and  re-revised. 
Medieval  theology  is  today  in  a  state  of  complete 
bankruptcy. 

Continuing,  these  free-thinking  agnostics  sardon- 
ically ask :  "Are  sincere  prayers  answered?  Is  God 
alive  and  present  in  the  universe?  Is  Christ  still 
mediatorially  in  the  heavens?  Are  angels  still  min- 
istering to  mortals?  Are  spirits  appearing  and  talk- 
ing as  did  Moses  and  Elias  on  the  Mount  of  Trans- 
figuration?" 

No !  is  the  chilling,  reluctant  reply  of  the  church- 
es; inspiration  has  ceased;  the  heavens  are  brass, 
the  angels  are  voiceless.  Spirit  communications  and 
revelations  were  booked  and  sealed  upon  Patmos 
and  the  present — this  stirring,  investigating  pres- 
ent— is  left  to  feed  upon  the  bony  skeletons  and  am- 
biguous records  of  the  grim,  dust-buried  past.  Read- 
ing about  the  manna  that  fell  and  fed  the  wander- 
ing Israelites  does  not  feed  us  today.  None  can  live 
on  the  history  of  a  thousand-year-old  bread.  Noah's 

29 


ark  would  not  serve  our  modern  commerce.  The 
Biblical  records  of  the  fig  and  pomegranate  that 
once  ripened  around  Olive's  mountains  do  not  sat- 
isfy our  normal  wants  today.  As  well  strive  to  fill 
our  arteries  with  the  blood  of  those  old  Jewish 
patriarchs  as  our  minds  with  their  dull,  formal, 
sacrificial  ceremonies  and  dry  religious  experiences. 
It  is  morally  impossible  to  import  religion,  or  direct 
evidences  of  a  future  immortal  life  from  the  cylin- 
der libraries  of  Babylonia  and  Mesopotamia,  or  from 
the  sepulchred  dust  of  Asia  Minor.  And  how  vain 
the  attempt  to  do  so,  when  we  are  taught  to  pray, 
"Give  us  this  day  (mark  the  phrase,  'this  day9)  our 
daily  bread,"  the  bread  of  life  which  cometh  down 
each  day  out  of  heaven  in  the  form  of  impressions, 
premonitions,  inspirations,  visions,  and  entrancing 
manifestations,  giving  light  and  "life  to  the  world." 
"Where  there  is  no  vision,"  said  the  prophet,  "the 
people  perish."  (Prov.  xvi,  19.) 

Thankfully  it  may  be  said,  God  has  never  left  the 
world  without  living  witnesses,  and  among  the  wit- 
nesses today  of  a  true  Christianity  and  heavenly 
manifestations  relating  to  immortality,  are  the 
American  Shakers,  a  quiet,  unassuming,  humble 
people,  keeping  the  commandments  in  the  Christ 
spirit  of  love  and  truth.  This  body  of  real,  Pente- 
costal Christians  hold  all  things  in  common.  They 
are  noted  for  industry,  cleanliness  and  hospitality. 
They  are  religious  seven  days  in  the  week.  Practic- 
ing the  laws  of  hygiene,  they  live  to  be  very  aged. 
Thy  have  added  to  faith,  knowledge.  They  oppose 
all  wars,  and  follow  peace ;  and  they  retain  the  gos- 
pel-promised spiritual  gifts.  They  are  not  very  nu- 
merous, for,  as  foretold,  "Strait  is  the  gate  and 
narrow  is  the  way,  and  few  there  be  that  find  it." 

But,  once  more,  where  are  the  dead?  Momentous 
question!  Where  are  the  demonstrations,  the  irre- 
fragible  evidences  in  this  morning  time  of  the  twen- 
tieth century,  proving  beyond  question  the  fact  of  a 

30 


future  conscious  life,  in  which  identity  is  maintained 
and  where  we  shall  meet,  recognize  our  loved  ones, 
and  know  as  we  are  known?  After  half  a  century 
and  more  of  candid,  conscientious  research  in  the 
fields  of  the  finer  forces  and  among  the  higher  psy- 
chic sciences,  in  both  English-speaking  and  Oriental 
lands,  my  reply  may  be  expressed  in  one  word — 
"Spiritualism"  using  the  word  first  as  the  direct 
antithesis  of  materialism,  and  secondly  as  the  npu- 
menon  underlying  the  phenomena  of  personal  spirit 
presences,  and  demonstrating  under  proper  condi- 
tions a  converse  with  them. 

The  investigating,  advancing  nineteenth  century 
bequeathed  to  this  twentieth  century  the  newly  dis- 
covered key — the  mighty  force  that  unlocked  the 
door  of  the  dreary  tomb,  rolled  away  the  stone  from 
the  sepulchre,  cabled  the  ocean  of  doubt  and  bridged 
the  river  of  death,  enabling  mortals  and  immortals, 
standing  face  to  face,  to  affirm  in  the  living  now, 
the  truth  of  life  eternal  beyond  death,  and  withal, 
widening  the  seemingly  limitless  horizons  of  prog- 
ress out  into  measureless  eternities. 

In  its  broadest,  all-comprehensive  sense,  Spiritual- 
ism is  a  fact — a  truth — a  philosophy;  and  more,  it 
is  religion — religion  itself,  binding  and  rebinding 
the  finite  closer  to  the  Infinite,  and  humanity  to  the 
very  heart  of  Divinity.  Thus  considered  in  its  high- 
est estate,  it  is  the  complement  of  the  Christianity 
of  the  Christ,  and  relates  to  the  long-delayed  dis- 
pensation of  the  "second  coming" — a  continuous 
coming  in  the  glory  and  in  the  power  of  angel  min- 
istrants  the  manifestations  of  which  are  natural  to 
the  plane  of  their  producing  causes. 

The  miracles  in  the  Catholic  Church  from  the 
first  Christian  centuries  to  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  and 
later,  were  supported  by  the  most  incontrovertible 
evidence,  by  judicial  depositions,  and  by  authentic 
records;  and  these  miracles,  so-called;  were  plainly- 
spiritual  manifestations,  and  were  in  perfect  ac- 

31 


cord,  psychically  considered,  with  those  occurring 
in  the  present. 

The  scholarly  Dr.  T.  J.  Hudson,  in  his  work, 
"The  Law  of  Psychic  Phenomena/'  remarks:  "The 
man  who  denies  these  facts  is  simply  ignorant. "  They 
are  the  links  in  the  chain  of  continuity  that,  uniting 
the  past  with  the  present,  harmonize  religion  and 
science — the  right  and  left  hand  angels  of  progress. 

The  most  eminent  preacher  of  New  York,  Dr. 
Minpt  J.  Savage,  thus  testifies:  "After  years  of  in- 
vestigation, a  large  number  of  the  leading  thinkers, 
students,  authors,  scientists,  physical  scientists, 
chemists,  mathematicians — great  minds — have  come 
to  believe  that  there  is  no  possible  way  of  explaining 
the  phenomena  which  have  been  over  and  over  again 
proven  to  be  facts,  without  supposing  that  the  per- 
sonalities had  been  in  communication  with  the  in- 
telligences of  the  invisible  world." 

Only  Sunday,  March  5th,  Bishop  Fallows  of  Chi- 
cago, in  an  eloquent  sermon,  delivered  in  St.  Paul's 
Episcopal  Church,  said:  "There  are  undoubtedly 
genuine  Spiritualistic  phenomena.  Otherwise  the 
Bible  itself  would  be  untrue.  They  occurred  in  the 
past,  and  why  not  now,  since  so  many  materially 
inclined  doubt  a  future  life?" 

The  late  Bishop  T.  M.  Clark  of  Providence,  R.  I., 
attended  the  seances  of  D.  D.  Home,  and  later  years 
he  informed  both  Robert  Dale  Owen  and  myself  that 
the  "phenomena  were  real  and  wonderful,  destroy- 
ing the  fear  of  death  and  reviving  the  gifts  of  the 
spirit." 

The  Rt.  Rev.  W.  H.  Moreland,  Bishop  of  Sacra- 
mento, CaL,  stated,  as  reported  in  the  press,  that  "as 
a  Christian  and  a  spiritual  being,  I  believe  the  com- 
munications with  the  spiritual  world  are  reasonable, 
and  to  be  expected;  indeed,  that  our  whole  religion 
reveals  it  and  requires  it,  and  that,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  we  practice  intercourse,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, with  the  spiritual  world  every  day  of  our 
lives." 

32 


Bishop  John  P.  Newman  of  the  Methodist  Church 
is  a  Spiritualist.  This  was  shown  in  unmistakable 
language  in  a  funeral  sermon  of  an  aged  lady  at  No. 
561  Madison  Avenue,  New  York.  "Belief  in  spirit 
communication  in  some  form/'  he  declared,  "is  all 
but  universal."  He  further  said  that  "the  spirits 
of  the  departed  have  all  along  returned  to  earth. 
The  best  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans,  and  those 
eminent  in  the  church  for  learning  and  piety,  have 
cherished  this  common  faith.  It  is  reasonable  and 
Biblical.  .  .  .  Celestial  visions  were  given  to 
Isaiah  and  the  prophets,  to  Paul  and  the  apostles, 
to  Stephen  and  the  martyrs,  while  Samuel  and  Moses 
and  Elias  were  returned  to  earth.  And  why  should 
we  suppose  that  there  is  less  interest  in  heaven  for 
earth  now  than  then?  But  do  the  communications 
between  the  two  worlds  continue  to  this  day?  Let 
us  not  be  deterred  in  answering  this  question  affirm- 
atively because  a  great  Bible  fact  has  been  perverted 
for  lust  and  lucre.  ...  It  was  the  opinion  of 
Wesley  that  Swedenborg  was  visited  by  the  spirits 
of  his  departed  friends,  and  Dr.  Adam  Clark  be- 
lieved the  same." 

The  Rev.  Adin  Ballou,  of  Massachusetts,  whom 
Count  Tolstoi  pronounced  "one  of  the  greatest  and 
noblest  men  of  America,"  both  preached  Spiritualism 
and  wrote  a  book  in  defense  of  it. 

Professor  Robert  Hare,  of  the  Pennsylvania  Uni- 
versity, author  of  several  discoveries  in  the  physical 
sciences,  among  which  was  the  caliomotor,  praised 
by  Professor  Faraday,  wrote  a  large  volume  entitled, 
"Spiritualism  Scientifically  Demonstrated." 

Alfred  R.  Wallace,  the  scientist  and  naturalist, 
pensioned  by  the  Queen  for  his  great  attainments, 
says :  "My  position,  therefore,  is  that  the  phenom- 
ena of  Spiritualism  in  their  entirety,  do  not  require 
further  confirmation.  They  are  proved  quite  as  well 
as  any  facts  are  proved  in  other  sciences." 

Sir  William  Crookes,  F.  R.  S.,  in  his  book,  "Re- 
searches in  the  Phenomena  of  Spiritualism,"  states 

33 


at  length  his  investigations  of  the  fact  of  an  inter- 
communion between  the  dwellers  in  the  visible  and 
the  invisible  worlds. 

The  illustrious  Victor  Hugo  was  an  outspoken 
Spiritualist.  I  once  had  the  combined  pleasure  and 
honor  of  attending  a  seance  in  Paris  where  he  was 
one  of  the  personages  present.  When  receiving  a 
beautiful  communication  from  his  departed  son,  he 
wept  in  joy  and  gratitude.  Well  and  wisely  did  he 
say :  "When  I  go  down  to  the  grave  I  can  say,  like 
many  others,  'I  have  finished  my  day's  work;'  but  I 
cannot  say  that  I  have  finished  my  life.  My  day  will 
begin  again  the  next  morning.  The  tomb  is  not  a 
blind  alley ;  it  is  a  thoroughfare.  It  closes  on  the  twi- 
light to  open  on  the  dawn." 

The  distinguished  F.  W.  H.  Myers  wrote,  in  his 
"Phantasms  of  the  Living:"  "not,  then,  with  tears 
and  lamentations  should  we  think  of  the  blessed  dead. 
Rather,  we  should  rejoice  with  them  in  their  enfran- 
chisement, and  know  that  they  are  still  with  us  and 
minded  to  keep  us  as  sharers  in  their  joy.  It  is  they, 
not  we,  who  are  working  now.  They  are  more  ready 
to  hear  than  we  to  pray;  they  guide  us  as  with  a 
cloudy  pillar,  but  it  is  kindling  into  a  steadfast  fire." 

Professor  Henry  Kiddle,  writer,  author  and  super- 
intendent of  the  New  York  City  schools  for  years, 
thus  wrote :  "Spiritualism  not  only  demonstrates  in 
a  most  positive  manner  the  fact  of  a  future  conscious 
existence,  but  it  is  an  encouraging  help  to  all  religious 
truth.  .  .  .  I  have  witnessed  marvelous  manifesta- 
tions through  my  son's  organization,  which  I  could 
not  account  for  only  upon  the  hypothesis  that  the 
agencies  were  spirits." 

Dr.  Richard  Hodgson,  M.  A.,  a  prominent  member 
of  the  British  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  writes : 
"I  believe  I  am  in  possession  of  incontrovertible  facts 
which  demonstrate  immortality.  I  have  witnessed 
some  genuine  supernormal  phenomena,  not  explain- 
able by  either  fraud,  illusion  or  suggestion,  and  whose 

34 


significance  will  have  to  be  reckoned  with  by  all  men 
of  science." 

The  late  S.  C.  Hall,  writer,  book  reviewer,  and 
founder  of  the  London  Art  Journal,  writes  in  his 
pamphlet:  "As  to  the  use  of  Spiritualism,  it  has 
made  me  a  Christian.  I  humbly  and  fervently  thank 
God  that  it  has  removed  all  my  doubts." 

Hundreds  of  testimonies  similar  to  the  foregoing 
from  those  illustrations  in  science,  or  devoted  to  relig- 
ion, might  be  named,  who  would  testify  to  the  tre- 
mendous fact  that  the  dead  can  and  do  consciously 
converse  through  sensitive  intermediaries  with  the 
living. 

And  what  the  moral  trend — what  the  primary  pur- 
pose of  this  spiritual  dispensation?  Whatever  it  may 
have  been,  it  certainly  is  not  destructive,  only  so  far 
as  light  displaces  or  disintegrates  darkness.  It  was 
and  is  emphatically  constructive  and  confirmatory  of 
all  the  past  revelations  that  have  streamed  down  in 
golden  radiance  from  the  Christ-heavens  of  beatific 
blessedness. 

These  cheering,  uplifting  messages  from  the  high- 
er, invisible  world  are  especially  intended  to  impress 
upon  men's  minds  that  they  are  spirits  now;  that 
they  are  moral  actors  now;  responsible  beings  now; 
that  they  are  building  now  for  eternity ;  that  they  con- 
sciously survive  death;  that  they  take  with  them  to 
the  next  stage  of  existence  their  deeply-imbedded 
characteristics,  attainments,  memories,  in  a  word — 
identities,  and  can,  under  proper  psychic  environ- 
ments, converse  with  those  still  vestured  in  material 
bodies ;  and,  by  so  doing,  mortals  along  the  way  may 
measurably  learn  of  the  conditions  and  employments 
of  those  existing  in  different  states  of  consciousness 
and  dwelling  in  different  spheres,  from  the  arch- 
angels and  angels  down  the  moral  decline  to  those 
peopling  the  dark  Tartarian  realms  of  remorse,  an- 
guish and  intensest  mental  suffering. 

The  philosophy  of  Spiritualism  puts  character  be- 
fore creed,  and  reaffirms  the  apostolic  doctrine  that 

35 


"whatsoever  men  sow,  that  they  must  also  reap ;"  that 
there  is  no  escape  from  just  and  deserved  punish- 
ment; that  repentance  and  prayer  are  indispensable 
duties  and  it  seeks  to  instill  and  thrill  into  men's 
minds  the  principles  of  co-operation,  of  equal  oppor- 
tunities for  all  and  it,  moreover,  inculcates  the  sub- 
lime ideal  of  universal  harmony  by  establishing  bet- 
ter and  higher  social  conditions  here  and  now — con- 
ditions that  must  ultimate  in  a  practical  and  Christ- 
like  altruism — a  present  spiritual  realization.  Heav- 
en's rest  is  not  idleness;  the  soul's  activities  are  in- 
tensified by  the  transition  termed  "Death."  The  fu- 
ture life  is  a  social  life,  a  constructive  life,  a  retri- 
butive life,  and  a  progressive  life,  where  the  spirit 
sweeps  onward  and  upward  in  glory  transcending 
glory. 

In  that  hour  of  death,  Spiritualism  does  not  say, 
"Good-night,"  but  rather  gives  the  glad  assurance 
of  a  most  welcome  "Good-morning"  just  across  the 
crystal  river.  It  does  not  drape  the  mourner's  home 
in  gloom,  but  lifts  the  grim  curtain,  allowing  the  sor- 
rowing to  hear  responsive  words  of  undying  affection 
from  those  who  have  gone  one  step  higher  into  some 
one  of  the  Father's  heavenly  mansions.  When 
Christ's  Christianity  prevails — when  nominal  Chris- 
tians become  more  Christlike,  and  nominal  Spiritual- 
ists more  spiritual,  the  chasm  of  Shibboleths  and 
medieval  dogmatisms  will  be  bridged,  estranged 
hands  will  be  clasped,  unsympathizing  hearts  will  be 
warmed  by  the  Pentecostal  flames  of  divine  love,  and 
angels  will  daily  walk  and  talk  with  mortals  as  pres- 
ent-day proofs  of  immortality. 

This  restless,  pushing  twentieth  century,  largely 
immersed  in  materialism  and  a  conscienceless  com- 
mercialism, needs  a  new  Christ  in  its  temple;  or, 
rather,  a  nearer,  purer-purposed  approach  to  the  old 
Christ-spirit,  which  inspires  and  demands  integrity, 
moral  principle,  brotherhood,  reverence,  obedience, 
tongues  of  fire,  open  vision,  and  a  heavenly  baptism 
of  life — a  new  life — a  higher  life  inflowed  from  those 

36 


seers  and  sages,  whose  presence  make  radiant  the 
homes  of  the  glorified  gods. 

Life,  springing  into  conscious  existence  from  non- 
life,  is  as  unthinkable  as  the  derivation  of  something 
from  nothing.  Neither  man  nor  his  naturally  en- 
nobling religious  emotions,  originated  from  the 
chance-force  friction  of  atoms,  nor  from  any  blind, 
polarized  interblendings  of  unreasoning  molecules. 
These  of  themselves  could  never  produce  such  desir- 
able fruitage  as  morality  and  religion — that  relig- 
ion, pure  and  undefiled,  which  makes  for  righteous- 
ness and  heaven  here  and  now,  and  for  beatific 
blessedness  hereafter. 

It  is  true  that  finite,  limited  man,  seeing  through 
a  glass  darkly,  has  never  seen  God ;  and  so  no  child 
ever  saw  the  mother  who  cared  for  him.  Neither 
the  garments  nor  the  material  body  constitute  the 
mother;  and  yet  the  child  feels,  loves,  trusts  the 
mother.  And  so  conscious,  rational  man  believes 
in  and  trusts  God.  The  invisible  is  ever  the  author 
of  the  visible. 

Tutelary  divinities,  supersensuous  influences  and 
conscious  spiritual  intelligences  from  angelic  alti- 
tudes adown  the  scale  of  being  to  demons  and  de- 
moniac obsessions,  are  all  about  us ;  and  yet,  if  men 
as  moral  actors  accept  and  strenuously  appropriate 
the  good  and  true  and  the  beautiful  they  may  make 
this  life  now  an  Eden  of  ecstasy — a  statelier  garden 
of  enchanting  loveliness  where  industry  is  animated 
and  sanctified  by  love,  and  where  men  under  the 
dominant  reign  of  love  may  and  will,  like  Enoch  of 
old,  consciously  walk  with  God.  Transfiguration  is 
just  as  possible  now  as  in  apostolic  times.  "Come 
up  higher"  is  the  voice  of  God  within.  Come  up 
higher,  is  the  trumpet  call  of  thousands  of  Christ's 
who  have  lived,  suffered,  fought,  conquered,  received 
the  white-stone  seal,  and  are  now  crowned  victors 
in  the  celestial  realms  of  a  paradisaic  immortality. 

Be  sure,  a  present  intercommunion  with  the  in- 
visible hosts  of  heaven  does  not  prove  immortality 

37 


in  the  sense  of  endlessness.  This  cannot,  in  the  na- 
ture of  things,  be  absolutely  demonstrated.  But  if 
Moses  and  Elias,  a  thousand  years  more  or  less  after 
their  death,  appeared  on  the  Mount  of  Transfigura- 
tion, and  "talked"  with  the  disciples  of  Jesus;  if 
one  of  the  ancient  prophets  appeared  to  John  on  the 
Isle  of  Patmos,  and  conversed  with  him ;  if  many  of 
the  great,  inspired  personages  of  the  long-ago  past 
have  reappeared,  robed  in  spotless  white,  and  spoken 
in  tongues  of  fire  to  mortals  now  living,  the  proof 
seems  almost  absolute  that  immortality  is  the  glori- 
ous destiny  of  humanity. 

When  this  glad  hour  comes,  empires,  kingdoms, 
republics  will  constitute  one  country,  and  the 
thought  of  that  one  country  will  not  be  "mine," 
"wme,"  for  selfish  ends — but  ours,  and  yours,  to 
appropriate  for  holy  uses.  Our  homes  will  then  be 
the  universe,  and  our  rest  wherever  a  human  heart 
beats  in  sympathy  with  our  own,  and  the  highest 
happiness  of  each  will  consist  in  aiding  and  blessing 
others.  The  soil  will  be  as  free  for  all  to  cultivate 
as  the  air  that  we  breathe.  Gardens  will  blossom 
and  bear  fruit  for  the  most  humble.  Fountains  will 
spring  up  by  the  wayside,  and  orchards  and  fruit 
trees  will  invite  passing  wayfarers.  Orphans  will 
find  homes  of  tenderest  sympathies.  The  tanned 
brows  of  toiling  millions  will  be  wreathed  with  the 
roses  of  industry  and  peace,  and  the  great,  throb- 
bing family  of  humanity  will  be  obedient  to  the  law 
of  love,  equality  and  liberty, — thus  establishing  the 
kingdom  of  God  upon  earth. 


THE   REJECTION. 

So  ends  the  "rejected"  paper,  the  rejection,  cler- 
ical-inspired, being  the  natural  fruitage  of  priest- 
craft and  theological  creeds. 

It  is  but  justice  here  to  state  that  the  secretary  of 


38 


this  British  Philosophical  Society,  Professor  E.  Hull, 
LL.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  F.  G.  S.,  exemplified  the  gentlemen 
of  culture  and  fairmindedness  all  through  this  ex- 
traordinary transaction. 

It  should  be  further  stated  that  the  world-re- 
nowned microscopist  and  scientist,  Professor  Lionel 
S.  Beale,  F.  R.  C.  P.,  F.  R.  S.,  F.  R.  M.  S.,  etc., 
contributor  to  and  member  of  this  Institute,  called 
upon  me  personally  a  few  days  after  the  official  re- 
jection of  this  "paper"  upon  immortality,  to  express 
his  "regrets  that  the  paper  was  not  read."  Other 
members  of  this  Philosophical  Society  very  gra- 
ciously called  upon  me,  or  sent  personal  "notes"  ex- 
pressing their  regrets  that  the  "paper"  was  not  read 
and  discussed.  But  as  their  notes  were  marked 
"Private,"  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  mention  their 
names.  Canon  Girdlestone  neither  called  upon  me 
as  a  penitent,  nor  has  he,  so  far  as  I  know,  expressed 
any  regret  at  the  decision  of  the  council,  of  which 
at  the  time  he  was  leader  and  potentate.  Wisely  did 
the  old  Hebrew  prophet  exclaim,  "0  priests,  ye  have 
been  a  snare  on  Mizpah.  ...  Ye  teach  for  hire, 
and  your  prophets  (seers)  divine  for  money." 

Persecution  and  the  sword  have  ever  accompanied 
this  churchianic  Christianity,  which  is  more  Pauline 
than  Christlike,  and  more  popelike  than  Pauline — 
in  a  word,demoniac.  This  class  of  hidebound  priests, 
steeped  in  bigotry,  will  be  the  obsessing,  vexing 
spirits  in  the  future  world.  Intermediary  sensitives 
should  look  out  for  them.  They  are  not  to  be  trusted 
in  matters  concerning  their  craft. 

Guizot,  the  eminent  French  statesman  and  his- 
torian, writing  of  the  superstition  and  bigotry  of  the 
church,  used  these  telling  words:  "When  any  war 
arose  between  power  and  liberty,  the  Christian 
church  always  planted  itself  on  the  side  of  power 
against  liberty."  In  the  same  line  of  wisdom,  the 
public  press  termed  "good  gray  poet,  "  Walt  Whit- 
man, wrote: — 


39 


"0  to  struggle  against  great  odds,  to  meet  enemies 

undaunted, 
To  be  entirely  alone  with  them,  to  find  out  how 

much  one  can  stand! 
To  look  strife,  torture,  prison,  popular  odium  face 

to  face, 
To  mount  the  scaffold,  to  advance  to  the  muzzles  of 

guns  with  perfect  nonchalance! 
To  be  indeed  a  God!" 

Cherishing  only  the  kindest  and  most  fraternal 
feelings  towards  the  members  of  the  Victoria  Insti- 
tute and  Philosophical  Society  of  Great  Britain,  and 
wishing  them  abundant  success  in  whatever  is  just 
and  good  and  true,  and  as  a  parting  salute,  I  bid 
them  farewell  in  these  lines: — 

"And  when  my  fainting  heart 
Desponds  and  murmurs  at  its  adverse  fate, 
Then  quietly  the  angel's  lips  part, 

Whispering  softly,  Wait!' 

'Patience!'  she  sweetly  saith — 
'The  Father's  mercies  never  come  too  late; 
Gird  thee  with  patient  strength  and  trusting  faith 

And  firm  endurance — 'Wait!' 

Angel,  behold,  I  wait! 

Wearing  the  thorny  crown  through  all  life's  hours, 
Wait  till  the  hand  shall  ope  th'  eternal  gate, 

And  change  the  thorns  to  flowers." 


40 


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